Singh Deepak K. Stateless in South Asia. The Chakmas between Bangladesh and India

Sage, 2010. — 315 p.Stateless in South Asia - The Chakmas between Bangladesh and India is a comprehensive study that explores issues pertaining to the ′stateless′ status of the ethnic Buddhist Chakma refugees in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, who originally belonged to the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs). What sets it apart is its holistic overview of the social history of the Chakmas from the colonial period onwards. While analyzing and emphasizing the current plight of the Chakmas in India as stateless refugees, it raises the concomitant question of what it takes to qualify as citizens of a modern postcolonial state.Singh provides a detailed account of the conflict between the Chakmas and the Arunachalees. The authenticity of the book lies in methodology…Singh effectively opens up a strong debate by questioning why there is no solution to the refugee problem even after 50 years of refugeehood. This reviewer firmly believes that the book definitely will help researchers of different subjects to explore an area which has remained isolated and unknown even in other parts of northeast India… offering hopes to both Chakmas and Arunachalees, especially by opening a strong debate, through questioning why there is no solution to these people’s predicaments even after fifty years of refugeehood. Deepak K Singh is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh. His research interests include migration and refugee studies, politics and ethnicity in Northeast India and postcolonial politics in South Asia. He has contributed several research papers in reputed journals and edited volumes.ContentsList of Maps
List of Abbreviations
Foreword by Ramachandra Guha
Preface
AcknowledgementsChakma Refugees: Partition Residues and Development Victims
CHT and NEFA: From Colonial Outposts to Postcolonial Peripheries
Politics of Demographic (Dis)order in Northeast India: The Idiom of Protest
Chakma Diaspora in Northeast India: Excluded Communities, Fragmented Identities
Official Discourses of the Chakma Issue: Centre versus State
Chakmas’ Self-perceptions: Understanding Everyday Lived Experiences of Refugees
Arunachalis’ Self-perceptions: Assertion and Reconstruction of Identity and Ethnic Nationalism
The Making of Refugees in South Asia: Nation, State and Outsiders
Interrogating India’s Refugee PolicyReferences
Index
About the Author